Whenever I go to a conference, I learn a tremendous amount from the people I meet at the show. I really enjoy the impromptu networking which takes place at events as it allows me to learn so much about what is happening in the market. Ironically, I generally learn things I didn't think I would learn ahead of time. Quite often, I wish I would have known more about peoples' experiences before I met with them as it would allow me to be better prepared to ask pertinent questions.

I further wish I knew who was coming to events and and moreover I wish I could get a "brain dump" from them before the event so I could have a frame of reference before our conversations take place.

Imagine how much better networking at a show would be if I had an idea what people were generally thinking about the market before I even say hello.

In less than two weeks the world with gather at ITEXPO -- The World's Communications Conference to help select products for purchase, learn about the latest events in the telecom market and network with peers.

It is this last area where this blog entry should be of maximal benefit. You see, over the past month or so I have been interviewing the telecom movers and shakers who will be coming to ITEXPO. I certainly didn't interview every mover and shaker (exactly what is a telecom shaker anyway  ;)  ) but this list should give you a good idea who some of the speakers and exhibitors will be at this year's show.

The questions each person answered below may be slightly varied but what is common is the person's thoughts on their markets and where they think things may be going. I truly hope you find these interviews useful and I hope to see you at the show September 16-18, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

   

NAME	COMPANY
Don Palmer	Sip Print
Jim Beuoy	OKS
Mark Stacy	Touchstone
John Nam	Phonevite
Jim Beuoy	OKS
Barry Sher	IVR Technologies
Ari Raban	Phone.com
John Doyle	CommuniGate Systems
David Mandelstam	Sangoma
Sharone Ben Levi	AudioCodes
Rupesh Chokshi	AT&T
Jeff Gallino	Callminer
Dr. David K. Schrader	Teradata
Mark Ricca	Intellicom Analytics
Xuedong Huang (XD)	Microsoft
Rick Dell	Mitel
Mark Lepko	Altitude Software North America
Liz Amaral	Enkata
Francis Carden	OpenSpan
Kevin Murphy	NEI
Chris Gravett	Aculab
Brian Schwarz	RedSky Technologies, Inc.
John Konczal	Sterling Commerce
Stefan Winkler	Symmetricom
Eric Thomas	FreedomVoice
Albert Chu	ACCESS Systems
Bill Miller	Digium (corrected -- sorry)
Randy Busch	Jazinga
Jeff Hicks	NetQos
Scott Charter	WBS Connect
Jim Slaby	Acme Packet
Dean Jordan	Telesphere
Justin McLain	Endeavor Telecom
Asif Rehman	Mitel
Steve Safley	VoIPConsultants
Frank Paterno	Intelliverse
Warren Sonnen	Epygi Technologies
Jim Jenkins	IQ Services
Jonathan Christensen	Skype
Mark De Clerq	Sitel Semiconductor
Ken Kuenzel	Covergence
Chris Lyman	Fonality
Michael Hermann	Cincinnati bell
Brough Turner	NMS
Shelley Veazie	CTI Group
Abdul Kasim	Critical Links
Eran Gal	Xorcom
Robert Messer	ABP
Todd Woodstra	SpinVox
Mike Coward	Continuous Computing
Laura Serna	Dialexia
James Rafferty	Dialogic
Ken Lowe	Sigma Designs
Rob McDougall	Upstream Works Software
Mary Boyd	Intrado
Henry Danser	Aspect Software
Gregory Giagnocavo	Vitelity
Vikram Saksena	Sonus Networks
Alastair Westgarth	Tango Networks
Greg Rothman	Cbeyond
Vivek Khuller	Divitas

Remember when I said the GUI would become the gesture-based user interface or GBUI? I mentioned Apple's patents in the blog entry and now a new patent application shows Apple is looking to fuse gestures, voice, the camera and motion sensors together to create a brand new interface.

Ironically last night I was showing some young relatives some photos on an iPhone and within a moment each of them took the phone and started to flip backwards and forwards through photos. This was the first time I remember not having to show someone how do what I had just done on a computer or phone. Apple's new GBUI is so easy, a 3 year-old and a 4 3/4 year-old were able to intuitively understand how to do what they wanted with no help from me at all.



It occurs to me the power of combining gestures and the above technologies if done correctly will transform how we interact with computers and as a result, at least two things will happen:

1. We will use computers in brand new ways. Just as we use an iPhone as a web browser and portable picture viewer when we didn't do this with prior phones.
2. We will see productivity skyrocket. I am convinced that when computers can communicate with us in the same manner we communicate with one another (this seems to be what the interface 2.0 is going), we will get more done than ever.

Of course the ball is in Apple's court and I am really interested in learning more about how new Apple products will take advantage of such interfaces. Speaking of which there has been minimal talk of Apple making an acquisition with their cash hoard... Should they pick up Nintendo to get the Wii motion-sensing technology?

But onto grander questions -- What is Microsoft doing to combat Apple's increasing dominance in the user interface game? After all, since the mouse and GUI, I don't remember Apple making a new interface leaving others in the dust. They seem to be on the verge of doing so again. Shouldn't Microsoft be worried. Last time it took about 11 years for Microsoft to catch up with Apple. If it takes that long this time along the company should just stick a fork in it's desktop OS business.

Moreover, although I was a reluctant Vista user at first and have gotten used to the new OS, it seems the majority of users are rebelling. Microsoft has never been so vulnerable and if Apple keeps making interface leaps and patents them, how will Microsoft catch up?

I missed John Chambers on CNBC this morning. I wanted to hear what he had to say but unfortunately I was being interviewed about ITEXPO at the exact same time Chambers was on TV. Thankfully, Michael Dinan, a TMCnet editor was on hand to listen to Chambers and write up what he had to say.

Chambers seems relatively bullish on technology and anticipates growth between 12-17% for the long-term. In addition, the world's largest networking company announced a net of over 10 billion dollars for the fourth quarter. This is the first time the company has exceeded the $10 billion bogey.

Chambers also spent a good deal of time focusing on visual networking and the growth of this market. Since 1997 the company has predicted a CAGR of 46 percent growth rate in visual networking based upon their Visual Networking Index or VNI.

As many of us know Cisco cites the tremendous growth in wikis, blogs, social networking and video sites like YouTube as reasons for the explosion in the VNI.

For more check out this TMCnet article.

Finally, after weeks/months of waiting I got an iPhone 3G. You may recall the mix-up I had at the AT&T Wireless store which seemed like it would keep me from ever getting one. Well, the store manager had been emailing me regularly this past week and when the phone came in yesterday, I thought it better to get it quickly before they give it to someone else again. ;)

The store manager gave me a free iPhone case and screen protector for my trouble and the funny thing is, I really wasn't that upset about the whole situation. After all, it gave me some good writing material. Apparently the person working the day my phone was "borrowed" didn't check ID... I am sure they figured -- Tehrani, how common a name could that be? I checked whitepages.com and there are 13 records matching my last name in Norwalk, CT alone so it is more common than I thought.

Anyway, I brought the phone to TMC last night and showed our designers how TMCnet looks in your pocket. They did some checks on their more esoteric designs and reported all pages looked good... Nothing looked too out of whack.

So now I have the famous Blackberry sandwich I have heard so much about... You know a Blackberry and iPhone in your pocket. It seems like many of us us techies have one of each. In my case, my Blackberry is an XV6800 from HTC.

I have obviously used iPhones before but with prolonged exposure to the latest OS I can tell you it is light years ahead of all other wireless phones available in the US.

And here is the problem for every other company in the space. They are working on dozens of phones at a time and the software sucks on all of them. Don't they know this?

I was in the local mall today and I passed by a line of ten people waiting to buy iPhones and then I walked past the Verizon Wireless store where there were a few people checking out the phones they had on display. The LG Dare was one of the company's newest offerings and as I tested it, I just couldn't help thinking how could they "dare" to sell this phone.

The phone is a direct knock off of the iPhone but the UI is worse in every way. It is as if they took an iPhone and told an engineer to copy it -- and I am sure that is what happened.

But getting back tot he iPhone, as I have complained about before, the on-screen keyboard is a major limitation. In addition, it was a bit of a hassle to get it to work with my Exchange server. Nothing insurmountable but I did receive a certificate error which threw me. Once working though, my contacts and appointments came in very smoothly -- perhaps more smoothly than on a Windows Mobile device.

The other iPhone downside is the lack of a clipboard to cut and paste data between applications. This would be quite useful if you are looking to blog and you want to point readers to a URL.

I am really not thrilled with the email interface either but I am getting used to it and viewing individual emails on this phone blows away other devices because you can zoom in and out of HTML email allowing you to actually read even complicated pages.

I used to have to wait until I got to a PC to look at much of my HTML mail and now I can deal with it on the road. What a time saver.

So while other phone companies like Motorola (and analysts) think it makes sense to launch more and more devices to be like Nokia, I want to express my extreme caution at such an approach. The mobile phone world has changed and users now understand that the crap most manufacturers pass off as web surfing devices is just that. Oh and one important point... They really do want to surf on the go. I recently saw numbers pointing to a 5:1 ratio of iPhone surfing to Windows Mobile surfing. The solution to this obvious problem is not to come out with 30 different types of crap in assorted colors, shapes and smells.

For some reason this all seems strangely obvious to me and I wonder why this message isn't being espoused more often by others.

If mobile phone companies want to compete against Apple they need to understand that cell phone design is more art than science and designers who are really good need to be involved in how they look and more importantly, function. The mobile browser is a crucial element here. Skyfire and Opera are doing a good job but I think partnerships with Mozilla might be the only way to compete effectively with mobile Safari. Germany's Debitel partnering with Opera to install the browser software company's "Mini" browser on their devices may be a smart model to follow but there also needs to be tight application integration.

One other point... If you can't come up with one cell phone as useful and easy to use as the iPhone, don't launch even more devices. Sure I understand why you might want to make a line of cheap phones for emerging economies but Apple is getting to the point where they will sell so many iPhones that their cost model will allow them to sell their iPhones at a price point close to your entry level device. Then what do you do?

It is amazing to me to see how cell phone providers and service providers have joined the touch screen frenzy. Verizon Wireless even has a touch screen category at the top of their device list and guess what -- all of the phones on the list are inferior to the iPhone.

So Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, SonyEricsson, etc you are forewarned. Oh and to the Microsoft Mobile team, you have done a good job until now but you have obviously just had your rear ends kicked. How will you respond? Will the Samsung Omnia help you overtake Apple's momentum?

Many of my readers and audience members at speeches tell me they won't buy Apple devices because they are closed. To this I answer, I buy my device to solve a problem... In this case to boost my productivity so I can be more successful in my job and have a better quality of life. If the price for reaching this goal is a loss in device openness, who cares?

For over six years I have been espousing the virtues of 3D, stereo voice conversations with articles  and ITEXPO demonstrations mostly focusing on DiamondWare and the company's patented 3D technology which allows you to have a conference calls with others and place them on the left right, front or rear.

Until you have heard a conference call in 3D stereo, you have not heard a conference call.

In addition, the technology allows the addition of overtones like adding a metallic sound to a speaker or group of speakers on a conference call. This function could be useful if you are looking to find a way to discern what group a person belongs to -- the Los Angeles office for example.

You may recall that on May 15th of this year, I suggested Nortel would even buy DiamondWare. Well today is that day as Nortel did just that... They purchased the company and further explained how they have a portion of their R&D budget devoted to making VC-like investments but of course with a potentially different exit strategy.

Nortel believes the future of communications is likely going to be avatar-based and even if they are partially right -- let's say 5% of all calls, this could be a huge market.

A Nortel Avatar Demo of their web.alive business communications platform:


Nortel is further betting that the technology advantage they have as a result of this acquisition will help insulate them against others in the market who compete. That would be Avaya, Cisco and even to a lesser degree (at the moment) Microsoft. You see, I personally believe that 3D, stereo communications provides such a rich immersive experience that once you have tried it, you will have trouble going back to traditional telephony.

This move is the second acquisition in a few weeks for Nortel as they just picked up Pingtel as well. For the Canadian-based company these moves are bold as Nortel seems to be gaining momentum in the enterprise. Many of us are aware that most acquisitions fail and Nortel's past acquisitions have not seen success above industry averages.

What the company has done these past weeks though is buy easily digestible companies which are relatively cheap. These companies are M&A training wheels and if the company can get better at acquiring, it can present a more formidable resistance to the Cisco onslaught. Over the years, I have heard more than one story of how Cisco has acquired Nortel partners and damaged Nortel in the process.

In order for technology companies to compete effectively against Oracle and Cisco, they need to know how to acquire successfully. So for Nortel, the world is their oyster... They have the DiamondWare 3D technology and  are now a player in open source and have time to practice the M&A game.

How the company handles these two new companies will show me and others if they are able to successfully pull off more deals and become a bigger competitive threat to other industry players.

In the mean time, these moves should serve as a signal to competitors that Nortel seems to have gotten its mojo back and for customers, I suggest you join me in pushing Nortel to get DiamondWare technology into the company's entire product line ASAP.

See Also

Jon Arnold's take
Press Release

It has been a long while since I had anything to report on RTI... You remember -- the company which has least cost routing and related patents which are being applied to the world of VoIP and in so doing generating seemingly large amounts of cash for RTI.

The first time I covered the topic, I interviewed Jerry Weinberger the founder of Rates Technology, Inc. You may recall the interview ended with a warning that companies should contact him before he contacts them.

Now it seems a number of years later, Chris Lyman the founder and CEO of Fonality details his entire interaction with RTl. He humorously describes what was obviously a painful negotiation for him and his company.

He actually describes the various phases of patent troll negotiation from abusive to kind and suggests a course of action for each. My favorite is listed below:

PATENT TROLL STRATEGY #4:	File a huge lawsuit at almost no cost to them.
SUGGESTED RESPONSE:	Drink lots of water. Cry. Call mom. But, don't cave.

In the end, Lyman did settle but what is interesting is his implication that the amount he settled for was not so onerous.

What is great about the post is that it is perhaps the most detailed description of the patent negotiation process and it could be really helpful for smaller companies dealing with similar issues. I do get calls all the time in fact from small-medium communications companies who are being called by attorneys regarding patent infringement so I know this is going on far more often than is written about.

I am also called on frequently to help provide documentation to lawyers and even asked often to be an expert witness in patent cases.

I would write about the many patent cases I come across more often but my conversations are sworn to secrecy and they sometimes even involve me signing NDA documents only my lawyer understands.

Having said all that, thanks to Chris Lyman for walking us through the process of patent negotiation and helping other companies who have few places to turn.

The open source world of communications is growing rapidly. Recently I discussed the Nortel acquisition of PingTel and what this means for our markets.

Ironically the competition in open source was once between Digium and PingTel and when Asterisk became the the dominant player in the space, it seemed that Digium won the war. It turns out that while PingTel lost steam, a new wave of compeitors in the open source space emerged, basing their products on Asterisk.

One such company is Fonality and their Trixbox platform has become a popular alternative in the open source space. It just so happens that Fonality is collocating their training session in Los Angeles at ITEXPO in a  few weeks.

If you are looking to see all the communications companies that matter in the market and also get a chance to receive certification on a number of topics, be sure to come to the show. As you probably know by now, TMC does not play favorites and we are open to working with many companies on their certification prgrams.

Here are the details of the the Trixbox program and a link to TMC University courses as well:

FtOCC CE FtOCC Technician  trixbox Training Courses Return to ITEXPO West Why Get FtOCC Certified? Get FtOCC certified to get prepared to make money with trixbox. Take FtOCC CE to sell and install trixbox and FtOCC Tech to support and troubleshoot trixbox. Get certified and get the cost of training back in your pocket: knowledge from the experts, demo kit with licenses to become your own export, and discounts on licenses and support! Product Discounts By attending FtOCC, you will automatically qualify for reseller discounts on trixbox Pro licenses and support. Now, get certified and start increasing your margins - instantly! Review the descriptions below then select the best course for you and register today!   FtOCC CE (trixbox CE)   FtOCC CE FtOCC CE is a 2.5-day course designed to teach the basics of trixbox® CE installation and administration. FtOCC CE is a great opportunity to roll up your sleeves and learn the ins and outs of trixbox CE. This course is designed for those who wish to install trixbox CE systems for their company or their clients, people who will have to maintain a trixbox installation, or users who are relatively new to trixbox and who want a better understanding of its capabilities. Learn More: Course Description Course Objectives FtOCC CE Agenda Course Requirements September 16-18, 2008 Los Angeles Convention Center Los Angeles, CA   FtOCC Technician (trixbox CE, Pro and PBXtra)     FtOCC Tech FtOCC Technician is a three-day technical certification course designed to train resellers and consultants to support their clients running trixbox CE, trixbox Pro, and PBXtra systems. Taught by Fonality technical support instructors and designed for Linux system administrators, FtOCC Technician dives deep into platform and application installation, carrier setup and integration, network configuration, echo causes and remedies, and other common issues. Learn More: Course Description Course Objectives FtOCC Technician Agenda Course Requirements September 16-18, 2008 Los Angeles Convention Center Los Angeles, CA

The VoIP opportunity is still huge according to a new report from Infonetics Research. At a time when many industries are really hurting, hosted VoIP and managed IP PBX services grew 53% to $24 billion in 2007 after surging 66% in 2006.

Obviously much of this growth is as a result of PSTN replacement but it should be noted that once IP is in place, the potential to add services increases greatly. The great news is Infonetics anticipates growth in the strong double-digits until at least 2011.

Interestingly, IP communications boosts productivity and saves money at the same time. This makes it a great technology to invest in when times are good and times are bad.

Sadly, many companies get the deer in the headlights feeling when they see an economy slow and they sometimes stick with the status quo instead of making decisions which will save them money, boost performance and generate rapid ROI.

Interestingly I have noticed an increased focus on contact center and CRM solutions these past months which leads me to believe companies have finally figured out that if you serve your customers efficiently and well, you make more money.

Contrast this to the last slowdown in 2000 when companies decided to offshore their call centers to save money. This resulted in many cases with worse service and some companies were forced to bring their call centers back into the states.

I am very curious to see how this year shapes up in terms of IP communications growth. Internationally it is certainly on fire but in the US we need to see just how many companies were staring into those headlights.

It has been pretty shocking to me to see that the Bush Administration did not embrace technology in a more grand fashion. After all, Vice President Al Gore was so enthusiastic about the Internet he even claimed to invent it.

So while it seems like the companies of importance in the Bush administration have to do with energy, commodities and defense, we may see a McCain presidency focusing at least a little on technology.

In fact there will be a 10% R&D tax credit and opposition to internet taxes. In addition there will be an increase in H1-B visas (thankfully). McCain does not think we should have federal net neutrality laws -- the FCC and other regulators should deal with these issues he believes.

See this New York Times article for more.

Good news: I have noticed plane fares for trips to ITEXPO this September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles have dropped by hundreds of dollars in many cases. As a show organizer, nothing makes me happier than having our event more accessible to everyone.

The Internet Telephony event has really evolved over this past decade and is now the the largest gathering of IP communications companies and decision makers in the world. It is the one place to be if you manage communications for a service provider, enterprise or are a reseller/developer.

You just have to be at this show if you want to network with the industry and see what is next and what is happening right now.

So I am happy to share the good news with you all and I hope to see you in September... In LA.